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The Manual Grooming Awards 2018

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The men’s grooming market has exploded over the past 10 years and shows no signs of slowing. By 2020, the global economic impact is expected to be $60 billion. That’s a lot of products.

With all those options out there, we know that it can be confusing for many guys to figure out what works for them without buying, trying, and potentially hating — and wasting — multiple items. To prevent that, we bring you the best of the best men’s grooming products of 2018 with our first-ever The Manual Grooming Awards.

Over the past year, we’ve tried countless shaving creams, aftershaves, face washes, exfoliants, eye gels, acne cures, beard oils, and every other type of men’s skin and hair care item you can imagine. To make it into the top spot for each of our 20 categories, a product had to work as well as advertised (or better), feature scientifically backed ingredients, and not cost half a paycheck.

Since we tested all these products on ourselves, we have firsthand knowledge of what doesn’t work, what’s mediocre, and what works so well that we keep coming back for more — and we hope you will too.

A good moisturizer will keep your skin hydrated and taught while fighting free radicals and other premature skin agers. Our pick for the best men’s moisturizer comes from a venerable brand with decades of experience in the men’s skincare. Lab Series Maxellence The Singular Cream outweighed all the other choices because of its ability to hit all the right marks, but also its cool factor and overall vibe.

Why we love it: First, it keeps skin supple and soft without going super greasy. Second, it’s black in color, yet somehow magically rubs in and is absorbed by the skin. And finally, it literally contains a small amount of meteorite. That alone is worth the $160 price tag.

There are only two requirements for a good acne spot treatment: It must reduce the size of the damned pimple and do it without turning the area into a desert. With tough ingredients like salicylic or glycolic acids, most spot treatments are heavy-hitters in the skincare department, so a little irritation is to be expected with any product you select. The best of the best, however, will zap that zit with minimal issues or redness. Murad Rapid Relief Acne Spot Treatment does just that.

An under eye gel or cream has to answer to a few big asks. One, it needs to immediately reduce bags, puffiness, and darkness. Two, it needs to hydrate. And three, it needs to have a cumulative anti-aging effect over time. Luckily, this triple threat can be found in Port Products Marine Layer Under Eye Recovery Gel. At $40, it might seem a little on the expensive side, but trust us when we say every penny is worth it.

Why we love it: Not only does Port Products’ eye gel lift and tighten the skin under the eyes, over time we’ve seen it diminish our everyday eyebags and reduce darkness. Best of all, the cooling sensation you get shortly after application lasts for at least an hour and honestly feels like you have a personal cool breeze — a cool breeze created by baby angels — reserved specifically for your eyes.

Ingredients: Red algae, kelp, and other algae to reduce the appearance of dark circles and bags; Irish moss and barley seed extract to improve skin elasticity; peppermint oil for its cooling and refreshing properties.

Beard trimmers come in all shapes and sizes. Most of them do a pretty decent job of what they claim to do, which is trim a beard. But so do a pair of scissors and a hand mirror. If you want your whiskers cut quickly and efficiently in a variety of ways, then you want a beard trimmer that’s versatile with multiple adapters. That’s why the Braun Multi-Grooming Kit with the ungainly MGK3080 moniker is our pick for the best beard trimmer.

Why we love it: O, Braun Multi-Grooming Kit, how do we love thee? Let us count the ways. You style our beards, trim our hair, relieve us of nose and ear hairs, and help us manscape. With multiple beard trimming, body grooming, and precision attachments, this gadget does it all. As an added bonus, Braun throws in a Gillette Fusion ProGlide razor for good measure.

Much like beard trimmers, razors come in an array of styles. From straight to safety to multi-blade, there’s a razor type for any many’s preferred beard-killing method. For us and for our readers, we focused on multi-blade razors for their ease of use and quick, relatively irritation-free shaves. Truefitt & Hill Wellington Razor Fusion checked all the requirements on our list.

Why we love it: The heft of the handle and the ergonomic shape make this razor a particular delight to shave with. Combine that with the five-blade attachment head and you’ve got what we believe is the perfect shaving tool with the added benefit of looking badass and beautiful on your bathroom counter. While a little pricey at first glance, the durability and handsomeness of Truefitt & Hill’s razor mean you’ll have it for years to come. Say goodbye to true disposables and hello to this hybrid razor instead.

There is a cleanser for every niche grooming need you can think of. Acne-ridding, anti-aging, exfoliating, blackhead-removing, oil-controlling, moisturizing — the list goes on and on ad infinitum. The best face wash removes dirt, oil, and impurities while leaving behind the skin’s own necessary oils and, if possible, adds a hydrating boost. Evenprime Cleanser does all that and more thanks to Korean skincare lab and manufacturing partnerships.

Why we love it: We really can’t overstate how great this is. The tiniest drop of Evenprime Cleanser will wash your entire face and neck area. The high-foaming action is activated by a few passes between the palms and the rest just requires light circular motions over the face. It washes away easily and leaves your skin feeling extremely, extremely clean. If we could recommend one single product for all men to own, it would be this.

Shaving cream has come a long way from bar soap lathered up with a bristle brush, lye and all. Thankfully, formulas today are imbued with creamy hydrators and anti-inflammatories, making shaving in the modern era more of a pleasure than a chore. When looking for the best shaving cream, we took into consideration cost, quantity, creaminess, and how well it reduces drag and prevents razor burn. ClarinsMen Smooth Shave shaving cream received top marks form our testing and, in our opinion, will be hard to top.

Why we love it: It might seem a little dramatic to call this shave cream deliciously creamy, but it’s the damned truth. After a little squirt of ClarinsMen Smooth Shave into the palm of the hand and 30 seconds of lathering, you will find yourself with a luxuriously thick cream that sticks to your face without any trouble. While shaving, there is little to no drag, no post-shave irritation, and hardly any fragrance. It also washes clean easily.

The most important factor to consider when selecting an aftershave is the Home Alone effect. You’ll recall Kevin McCallister as played by Macaulay Culkin in the 1990 John Hughes classic wherein McCallister slaps an alcohol-based aftershave on his face and performs the scream that went down in cinematic history. You don’t want to be like McCallister — you want an aftershave that’s going to soothe and moisturize the skin leftover after scraping off the top layer with a razor blade. Guise Etiquette Aftershave Balm is the best of the best when it comes to calming the irritation that inevitably comes with taking a blade to your face on the regular.

Why we love it: This balm doesn’t contain any alcohol and therefore prevents Home Alone face all while moisturizing and calming. It goes on easy, a little goes a long way, and it doesn’t leave your skin greasy, meaning you can still layer that oh-so-important moisturizer on afterward.

Ingredients: Aloe vera for its calming and moisturizing properties; witch hazel to reduce redness and close pores; shea butter for its moisturizing and collagen-stimulating properties.

We may sound like a broken record when it comes to reinforcing the necessity of beard oil, but the honest truth is, if you have a beard longer than a few centimeters, you need a good beard oil. Not only does beard oil — like this one from The Roosevelts Beard Company — smooth rogue beard hairs, it conditions the skin and prevents tangles and split ends as well.

Why we love it: Made with jojoba, almond, argan, and other essential oils like eucalyptus, tobacco, rum, and peppermint, this small-batch concoction will leave your beard conditioned and smelling like your grandfather’s old-school barbershop with just a hint of the wild. A portion of all proceeds goes directly to the National Parks Foundation, so you’re doing good while looking it.

Ingredients: Jojoba oil for moisturizing and smoothing; almond oil for fragrance and conditioning; argan and other essential oils for fragrance.

When it comes to shampoo, finding one that doesn’t strip hair of all its natural oils is our first priority. Removing some oil and build-up is why we use shampoo in the first place, of course, but shampoos that contain harsh surfactants and detergents tend to remove all of your hair’s natural oils, leaving strands dry, brittle, and susceptible to environmental damage — all huge no-nos for men, especially those who are trying to preserve what hair they have left. Malin + Goetz Peppermint Shampoo cleans effectively while maintaining enough oil in your hair to keep it shiny and strong. Pair this with our pick for best conditioner and say goodbye to bad hair days.

Why we love it: Formulated to be gentle, this shampoo hits the sweet spot between stripping your hair of all its oils and leaving too much. The peppermint scent is invigorating and stimulating — a great pick-me-up prior to a night out or a kick in the pants for those post-workout, pre-work showers.

For guys with frizzy, curly, textured, or damaged hair, hair cream should be in your toolkit. Important things to look for in a cream include the ability to be absorbed by the hair, whether it comes off on fabrics, and the weight it gives your strands. Scotch Porter Hair Balm, our pick for the best hair cream, is lightweight, moisturizing, and can tame even the unruliest of bird’s nests.

Why we love it: With a slightly musky scent and ingredients like marshmallow root, agave nectar, and broccoli seed oil, Scotch Porter’s cream conditions, tames, and adds texture to hair that might otherwise be a poufy or flyway mess.

Hydration, hydration, hydration. That’s what we want from our conditioners. At the same time, we want something that’s not going to weigh our hair down and make us look like a scene kid from the early 2000s. Rugged & Dapper Hydration Remedy Conditioner delivers on the hydration without making you look like an extra in an outdated music video. It takes a little effort to get this thick, creamy conditioner out of the bottle, but the results more than make up for the extra work.

Why we love it: The best part about this conditioner? Its many natural ingredients not only hydrate and nourish hair but also do their part to care for the skin beneath it. Effective against mild dandruff, this conditioner hydrates without weighing hair down or creating that product-heavy appearance.

Unlike waxes and true pomades, hair clay provides texture, moldability, and hold without adding weight to your strands. Great for styles that require volume and smoothing, hair clays also nourish the skin on the scalp with their high mineral content. When looking for the best hair clay, we wanted something that was light, absorbed quickly and easily, and didn’t require the use of a ton of product.

Why we love it: Baxter of California Clay Pomade reached our top spot because of its ease of use (just rub it into damp hair after your morning shower), the small amount required for it to be effective (a fingernail-sized dab), and the ability to use a little product for relaxed styling or add more for a sleeker, tailored look.

Why waste plastic and water with a liquid body wash when you can pick up one of today’s best bar soaps? They’re better for the environment thanks to minimal packaging and all-natural ingredients. V76 by Vaughn Detox Bar Soap also has the added benefit of detoxifying clay. Who can argue with that?

Why we love it: The bar not only lasts a really long time (you definitely get your money’s worth), it also smells great with scent notes based on basil, lime, thyme, eucalyptus, ginger, and vetiver. Oats create a slight exfoliant effect, which is great for those dry-skinned winter mornings.

Deodorants have several requirements when it comes to determining the best. First, it should never stain, yellow, or discolor clothing. Second, it should be as close to all-natural as possible (meaning no aluminum). And finally, it has to fight B.O. Quite a few companies have created products that meet all these requirements, but none did it as well as Ursa Majors Hoppin’ Fresh Deodorant.

Dopp kits are the unsung hero of the travel world. They keep all your products together in one place, are often water-resistant to prevent pesky spills, and have handles for easy toting from home to hotel. We prefer zipper-closed kits with waterproof material and interior pockets to wrangle all those smaller products, such as sample shave creams and condoms.

Why we love it: The Chester Wallace Small Format Bag is handmade in Portland, Oregon, from waxed canvas, making it both waterproof and a proud product of the U.S. A leather handle with a brass D-ring allows you to hang it up and an exterior zipper pocket keeps smaller items like lip balm close at hand. The kit also comes with a nylon strap in case you need a tiny day bag to wrangle your phone, camera, and external battery packs.

We all know the importance of sunscreen. No one wants a big, black melanoma popping up on their chest or face before spreading to the rest of their organs. The best sunscreen should protect against both UVA and UVB rays, be decently waterproof, be visible upon application (so you don’t miss a single spot), and be environmentally friendly (save the reefs!). All Good SPF 50+ Sport Sunscreen Butter Stick exceeds these expectations by also being exceptionally easy to use.

Why we love it: This sunscreen is biodegradable, reef-safe, easy to apply, and water-resistant up to 80 minutes. A coconut oil base moisturizes and provides natural sun and wind protection while zinc oxide blocks UVA and UVB rays. The thick, white nature of the sunscreen means you’ll never overlook a patch of skin and end up looking like a beach leopard.

Mud masks aren’t new, but they are fairly new to the men’s grooming world. Only within the last few years have guys really stepped up and embraced the mask, whether it be clay, mud, sheet, or other. When picking our winner for the best men’s face mask, we stayed away from sheet masks, which are often the wrong size and don’t stay on, therefore wasting precious serums and ingredients. We found most straight clay masks to be too drying on the skin. So, we landed on mud masks, specifically style god Tom Ford’s Intensive Purifying Mud Mask.

Why we love it: A little goes a long way with this super thick, ultra-purifying mask. It starts off shiny and black, then turns light gray when it’s ready to be washed off. It’s easy to use and easy to see the results. Charcoal, bentonite clay, aloe, ginseng, and other botanicals combine to create a deep-cleaning mixture that leaves skin tight, hydrated, and refreshed, but also makes you feel like a modern-day James Bond on vacation in the Maldives.

A hangover cream needs to hide the fact that you’re hungover. That’s it. While there are a lot of products that promise to make you look like you just woke up from 10 hours of restful REM sleep, most fall short. Not so with our top pick for best hangover cream (which happens to be an oil).

Why we love it: If you can remember to slather Kiehl’s Midnight Recovery Concentrate all over your puffy, dried out face before you pass out from a night of drunken adventure (or maybe just one too many cocktails), you’ll wake up in the morning looking great, even if you don’t feel the same on the inside. While the application is undoubtedly greasy, it doesn’t cause many users any acne or excess oil production. Most people find they look hydrated, rested, and refreshed.

From spin brushes to microbeads to oat-bit scrubs, exfoliants for men come in all shapes, sizes, and forms. Bar soaps battle against steel wool-like scrubbers to see who can remove the most dead skin. We’re of the opinion, however, that gentle is best, especially when it comes to exfoliating the face. Our winner for this category, while the most expensive in The Manual Grooming Awards 2018, is, without a doubt, the best exfoliant and anti-aging product for men on the market today. Not a scrub, wash, or brush, the Foreo Luna 2 for Men is a vibrating silicone exfoliant that will change the way you wash your face.

Why we love it: The Foreo Luna 2 offers precision exfoliation in a way that no brush, pad, or liquid wash ever could. There are two sides: a scrubber for everyday exfoliation and a ribbed design used to stimulate collagen and prevent aging. Vibration settings allow for a fully custom experience. Got a rough patch? Go at it hard. Looking for something more gentle around the eyes? Opt for the anti-aging side and the lowest vibration setting. Combine this brush with our best face wash and you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the results.

The Manual is offering one lucky guy a grand prize giveaway that includes every single winner above. Yes, from the best sunscreen to the best bar soap, we've included them all. Just head on over to our giveaway page and follow the instructions to enter. You might be the man to walk away with over $1,000 worth of the best men's grooming products of 2018.

The Manual is simple — we show men how to live a life that is more engaged. As our name implies, we offer a suite of expert guides on a wide range of topics, including fashion, food, drink, travel, and grooming. We don’t boss you around; we’re simply here to bring authenticity and understanding to all that enriches our lives as men on a daily basis.

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